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The
Labor Department enforces federal regulations that require
businesses doing work for the U.S. government to maintain
nondiscriminatory hiring and employment practices. These
regulations are designed to guarantee equal employment
opportunity to ethnic minorities,women, disabled people, and
veterans.
The
Labor Department administers federal laws on workers'
compensation programs and enforces legal standards for the
funding and operation of private pension and welfare plans. It
also oversees the nation's unemployment insurance programs.
The department works to reduce unemployment by providing job
training for disadvantaged young men and women. The department
helps people find jobs through programs administered by one of
its agencies, the United States Employment Service. The
department also gives local governments funds to establish and
maintain their own job training programs for disadvantaged and
unemployed people. In addition, it develops
apprenticeship standards for the training of skilled workers.
The
department administers laws that require the fair election of
labor leaders and the publication of accurate union financial
reports. In addition, it promotes cooperation between labor
unions and employers.
Another important Labor Department function is that of serving
as the government's chief fact-finding agency in the field of
labor economics. The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics
collects, analyzes, and publishes information on employment and
unemployment, wages and industrial relations, occupational
safety and health, and productivity and technology. The bureau
prepares the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the most widely used
measurement of price trends in the United States.
History
In
1884, Congress established a Bureau of Labor in the Department
of the Interior. In 1888, Congress gave the bureau independent
status as the Department of Labor. In 1903, Congress established
the new Department of Commerce and Labor and
made the Department of Labor a bureau in it.In 1913, President
Woodrow Wilson signed a law creating an independent Department
of Labor. The office of secretary of labor became the first
Cabinet-level office to be occupied by a woman when Frances
Perkins was appointed to the post in 1933. |
